On the girls side, the form chart from the preview prevailed as Eastern Region champion Bethel scored 54 points for the victory with Northern Region champion Lake Braddock second with 46.5 points followed by Central Region winner Hermitage in third with 37 points and Northern runnerup Hayfield fourth with 35 points.
Bethel was once again led by talented speedster Francena McCorory. The junior successfully defended her titles in both the 55 dash at 7.02 seconds and also the 300 dash in 38.38 as well as running a very swift anchor leg on the winning 4x200 relay which included freshman Crystal Carrington and sophomores Essynce Roberts and Kamilah Barnette, as they won by over ten meters in 1:42.22.
Bethel also received a convincing win in the 500 meter dash from senior Shakirra Pinnock at 1:14.85 and sealed their team victory with a second place finish in the 4x400 relay, which was worth eight points, with Pinnock anchoring the team which included Carrington, Barnette and senior Megann Lawrence.
Runnerup Lake Braddock made Bethel work hard for the win as they were a close second and actually held a half point lead going into the 4x4. Lake Braddock put together a majority of their points in the field events as senior Ashley Haislip won the high jump title for the third year in a row, this time at 5 feet 8 inches.
Lake Braddock also notched a second place in the pole vault with junior Anna Noguchi clearing a personal best 11-0; a third place in the shot put with junior Teressa McCoy (40-1) and a tie for third in the vault from Haislip (10-0). On the track they were led by junior Erin Klein who played a part in 13 of their points with a fourth in the 3,200 run (11:20.01), seventh in the 1,600 run (5:13.40) and as part of their third place 4x800 relay team (9:32.93).
Junior Queen Harrison was the top performer for third place Hermitage. Harrison was involved in 27 of her squad\'s 37 points as she won the long jump at 18-10; was second in the 300 dash (40.11); finished third in the triple jump (38-8.75) and was part of the sixth place 4x200 relay (1:45.18). Hermitage also received a second place from senior Jasmine Major in the 55 hurdles (8.43) to help secure the third place trophy away from Hayfield.
Fourth place Hayfield had two individual winners in senior Melissa Dewey and junior Nakeisha Wineglass. In the 3,200 run, Dewey separated from the field in the final half of the race to win by 25 seconds in 10:36.36 after finishing second in the 1,600 run (5:04.56) two hours earlier.
Wineglass completely surprised the field in the triple jump. The Hawks junior came into the state meet as the 13th seed at 36-11. She then barely made the finals as the ninth and last seed with a 37 foot and change effort. Wineglass then moved up to sixth place on her next to last jump in the finals at 38-1 before exploding to her winning leap of 39-8 on her final attempt, more than two feet farther than her previous best before states.
Hayfield\'s other seven points were a contribution from senior Murielle Ahoure, who was third in the 55 dash (7.15) and part of the eighth place 4x200 relay (1:46.22).
Midlothian finished fifth with 27 points and had one of the most surprisingly easy of the victories at the meet. Coming in as the fourth seed in the 4x800 relay on Friday evening behind three schools from the Northern Region, the Midlothian quartet of freshman Christine Selander, sophomore M.C. Miller, junior Jessica Oakley and senior anchor Amanda Patterson won in a fine time of 9:24.33 with Patterson at one point in the race having to look clear across the track to get a glimpse of her closest pursuers.
Patterson was also able to contribute an additional fourteen points individually on Saturday afternoon with a third place in the 1,600 run (5:05.91) and second in the 3,200 run (11:01.80) to complete her weekend distance triple.
Kecoughtan scored 23 points for sixth place and their best finish at the state level in quite some time. Kecoughtan\'s 4x400 relay team of sophomore Morgan Saunders and the junior trio of Lana McGowan, Tiara Swindell and Marlene Belizaire was victorious in 3:57.63 and McGowan also contributed a second place in the 500 dash (1:16.27) while Belizaire was fifth in the 1,000 run (2:59.36).
Other winners included junior Kathy Howard of Lee-Davis in the shot put at 42-1.5 as she prevailed over Deep Creek senior Jessica Wade (40-7); Mills Godwin sophomore Anne Marie Gordon, behind on misses at 11-0 to Noguchi of Lake Braddock, cleared a personal best 11-3 to claim the pole vault and in the 1,000 run, junior Kenya Jones of Western Branch (3rd; 2:58.72) set a very brisk early pace and still had the lead on the final homestretch before succumbing to the very fast finish of James River freshman Kristen Wolfe, who won in a personal best of 2:57.02 with Jefferson senior Kat Schleckser also closing well for second in another personal best of 2:57.88.
On the boys side, perennial power Deep Creek showed they were not nearly as vulnerable as some people thought as their 47 points were enough to enable them to win their fourth straight indoor team title as they outdistanced runnerup J.R. Tucker\'s runnerup total of 39, with Landstown scoring 33 points for third place and Western Branch giving the Eastern Region three of the top four slots with their 28 point total for fourth place.
Deep Creek rode the double victory performance of junior Quentin Moore as he came through with a close win in the 500 dash at 1:05.67 to second place finisher Carlton Phipps of E.C. Glass (1:05.90) and an even closer decision in the 300 dash as Moore held off a late surge from junior Charles Clark of Bayside with both timed in 34.70.
Moore also anchored Deep Creek to third place in the 4x400 relay (3:28.39) and even though his excellent day was necessary for victory, it could not have been accomplished without key field event performances by senior Raphael Hall, who won the high jump on fewer misses over Lake Braddock senior David Jones at 6-6 and with senior Thomas McCutcheon placing second in the shot put at 54-11 to Denbigh sophomore Jaymes Brooks (55-11.75).
J.R. Tucker\'s distance prowess kept the Central Region in the hunt for the first place team trophy for most of the meet. On Friday evening, Tucker hooked up with Herndon and Robinson in the 4x800 relay in one of the best events of the meet.
Herndon\'s Ermin Mujezinovic gave his squad a slight lead on the first leg with Jared Hatch holding his own on the second leg and Danny Gordon running a very strong third leg to give anchor Abe Dagnachew about a ten meter lead. Tucker led off with Michael Peterson; Michael Chapa\'s 1:55.5 effort on the second leg had them with the leaders and anchor Thuom Mathiang got the baton from Tanner Seese in third place but within striking distance of the lead while Robinson ran solid in their first three legs with Sean Welsh, Tommy Barrineau and Chris Clark to put anchor Mark Hussa in the second position.
Mathiang of Tucker and Hussa of Robinson quickly closed the gap on Dagnachew and vied for the lead but Dagnachew would not relinquish it through the first three laps. Entering the final lap Hussa made a strong move for the lead but Dagnachew fended him off. Down the backstretch, all three teams appeared capable of victory but Dagnachew never lost his first place postion throughout the race as Herndon won in 7:59.82; Tucker grabbed an all important eight points for second place (8:01.01) and Robinson was a strong third in 8:01.19.
Tucker then picked up 15 points in the 1,600 run on Saturday with Chapa winning the 1,600 in 4:16.50 and teammate Mason McElroy finishing fourth in 4:22.68. Eight more points were on the board after Mathiang ran 2:31.47 to finish second to Herndon\'s Dagnachew (2:31.23) in another exciting stretch drive which saw Woodside\'s Derrick Robbins finish a close third in 2:31.74 with Chantilly\'s Brad Siragusa right behind in fourth at 2:32.02.
That gave Tucker a chance to put the pressure on Deep Creek in the 4x4 if they could score well in the 3,200 with Chapa and McElroy. Chapa bided his time in the early stages of the race and then steadily moved through the pack and with 800 meters started going stride for stride for the lead with Dawit Legesse of Lee. With 300 meters to go, Legesse and Chapa got their feet tangled together and Chapa went down. He got back to his feet but was only able to muster a 10th place finish.
Meanwhile, Legesse regained his composure and rhythm somewhat but was caught on the last lap by McElroy and Ocean Lakes senior Drew Midland with Midland, the number ten seed coming into the meet, putting on a furious charge in the last 100 meters to win going away in 9:22.28 with McElroy second (9:26.03) and Legesse third (9:28.43).
Third place Landstown rode the efforts of junior William Harvin. It was a busy weekend for Harvin as he had a state playoff basketball game to play in on Saturday evening after the meet\'s conclusion and who is also one one of the top football recruits in the nation. Harvin notched a second place in the long jump on Friday evening at 23-5 and then popped a 48-2.5 mark in the triple jump to hold off Granby\'s Dionne McClain (2nd; 48-0). Harvin also chipped in with a leg on Landstown\'s second place 4x200 relay (1:32.07) which included Darren Jones, Jamal Blyden and Sean Lam with Jones, Blyden and Lam then teaming with sophomore Kevin Wilson to claim fifth in the 4x400 relay (3:29.16).
Fourth place Western Branch nailed down one victory as their 4x200 relay team of senior Devin Fentress and juniors Courtland Marriner, Devin Fentress and Will Hinton won in 1:31.23. Fentress and Marriner also teamed up to score a total of 16 points as each placed in both the 55 dash and 300 dash.
There was one other double winner in individual events besides Moore of Deep Creek as senior Dennis Boone of Thomas Dale moved to number three on the all time performance list at the state meet with his win in the long jump at 24-9.75 and Boone also claimed the 55 meter dash in 6.36 to finish just ahead of Bayside\'s Charles Clark (6.38).
The other victories on the track were earned by Douglas Freeman senior B.J. Revis in the 55 hurdles at 7.53 and the T.C. Williams 4x400 relay team of Dajuan Stafford, Jeffrey Hernandez, Charlie Slominski and Adrien Prophete turning in a 3:26.51 to win that race while the other field event title claimant was Great Bridge junior Mike Morrison, who moved to number two on the all time list indoors with his victory in the pole vault at 15-9.